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Parents perceive Walmart, Target, Old Navy best for BTS

Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Target (NYSE:TGT) and Old Navy are some of the top retailers based on a parent perception metric that measured intent to purchase back-to-school items. Dropping to the bottom of the list is Abercrombie & Fitch, according to a YouGov BrandIndex survey.

The biggest surprise for this year's results is that Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD), though monetarily troubled, made the list ahead of stores such as Macy's and Marshalls. Earlier this week, Sears announced that quarterly same-store sales dropped 11 percent.

The study looks at two scores: purchase consideration and value. The purchase consideration score has proven to be a significant gauge when it comes to potential sales.

The top three brands, Walmart, Target and Old Navy, have the highest combination of purchase consideration and value perception levels with parents this back-to-school season. Walmart and Target are significantly ahead of where they were one year ago on both measurements. Specifically, 62 percent of parents would consider making their next purchase at Walmart and 53 percent would consider Target, up from 44 percent last year.

A surprise winner was Sears, which made a significant jump in purchase consideration compared to one year ago, putting the department store on par with TJ Maxx and just behind JCPenney and Kohl's.

The lowest tier is for brands that don't seem to hold a place in parents' hearts: Hollister, Hot Topic, Wet Seal, Urban Outfitters, Charlotte Russe, J. Crew, Bloomingdale's, Saks, Neiman Marcus and Banana Republic—all just ahead of Abercrombie & Fitch. However, don't count out Abercrombie, which is a favorite among these parents' teenage children. According to a recent survey from Fluent, shoppers ages 18 to 24 preferred Abercrombie, American Eagle and Forever 21.